CLEVELAND, Ohio — In this episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Ethan Sands and Chris Fedor delve into the injury concerns surrounding key Cavs players.
Takeaways:
- The Cavs are focusing on player health management this season, as injuries have plagued the Cavs in recent years.
- Kenny Atkinson is emphasizing player development with his coaching staff, surrounding himself with player development gurus.
- Craig Porter Jr. has shown he can step up when needed and could be a valuable asset to Jaylon Tyson.
- Max Strus’s injury recovery is being handled cautiously.
- The Cavs could look for cost-effective ways to improve their roster.
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Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.
Ethan Sands (00:02.094)
What up Cavs Nation? I’m your host, Ethan Sands, and I’m back with another episode of the Wine and Gold Talk Podcast. Joining me on today’s episode, Chris Fedor rocking the Browns. You know how it goes. We are currently at halftime of the Brown Steelers game. This is not a Browns podcast, but Chris, I want you to have your
Chris (00:20.411)
Yes, yes, yes.
Ethan Sands (00:32.078)
your ability and your freedom to air your grievances of the season of the Browns to this point. They are beating the Steelers at the very moment. Again, this is halftime. They’re up 10 to three. What do you think about this team, where it’s going, where it’s been, all the good and bad?
Chris (00:52.576)
God, really? Season one off the rails quickly and look, mean, I think they set the tone all the way back to this off season and they basically said that winning is not the most important thing to this organization. It’s being validated for the decision of Deshaun Watson and figuring out whether Deshaun Watson can ever get back.
to the level that he once showed when he was in Houston. Can he get back to the level that we thought he was going to be at when we decided to give up everything that we gave up to get him? Because if winning was the most important thing, they would have brought back Joe Flacco. But they didn’t, they chose not to. And if winning was the most important thing, they would have turned to Jameis Winston a little bit earlier. And for all the conjecture about Kevin Stefanski and the kind of coach that he is, and he’s not perfect.
I feel like I’m saying the same things that I said about JB Bickerstaff. He is not perfect. He makes mistakes. There are some things with the operation of the Browns that I just don’t enjoy, but this dude has one with Joe Flacco. This dude has one with PJ Walker. This dude has made a competent enough offense with Jameis Winston. The only one who has not played well at quarterback under Kevin Stefanski.
is Deshaun Watson. So like when you piece it all together, you don’t want to lay the blame on one guy, but it’s obvious. Like if you ever saw Fast and the Furious way back in the day, one of the earlier Fast and Furious, like Paul Walker kept saying that, hey,
Maybe the guy who’s running the operation is this guy. Maybe the guy who’s running the operation is this guy. And he just like didn’t want to admit to himself that it was Toretto. And his boss, there was a wine that always sticks with me. His boss goes up to him he goes, Brian, it’s Toretto. It’s always been Toretto. And I feel the same thing when it’s Deshawn.
Chris (02:53.508)
Like the problems with the Browns began when Deshaun Watson arrived and we could sit here and we can lie to ourselves and we can say that the Browns don’t have this and Kevin Stefanski didn’t do this. It’s Deshaun guys. It’s always been Deshaun. And look, I was in support of trying to go out and get him because of what he could potentially become and what he could potentially do for this Browns offense if he ever got back to that level.
but it became clear as you were watching him over and over and over again that he wasn’t going to get back to that level. So move on from him, figure out what you can do at a quarterback spot that can give you a fighting chance on the offensive side of the football because when Deshawn’s out there, they can never score 20 points and it’s the NFL. You’re gonna have to score 20 points consistently to be competitive no matter how good your defense thinks it is.
Ethan Sands (03:49.43)
Alright, so if you couldn’t tell, obviously we’re with Chris being allowed to go on his little tangent to start the pod. It is a Hey Chris episode and I want to round out that first little bit with, hey, I don’t care if the Browns beat the Steelers.
Chris (03:55.494)
Thank
Ethan Sands (04:06.018)
To be honest, it helped my guys out. So that’s the bigger plan, the bigger picture. But I’m not going to allow that to air out itself. If you want to take your guesses, go ahead in the comments. But subtexters, you already know what it is. But Chris.
Chris (04:13.798)
There you go.
Chris (04:22.894)
It’s only half time, Ethan. There are still 30 minutes left of this football game where Jameis could self-destruct. The Browns themselves could self-destruct and the Steelers can figure things out a little bit more on the offensive side. So let’s not get them ahead of ourselves. We’ve seen some of these same kinds of situations before with the Browns and they just have not been able to pull them off. I think Taysom Hill is still running to win at this point in time.
Ethan Sands (04:53.23)
Hey, that’s that’s why I put in Najee Harris for my fantasy football team, especially with the weather I was like he better be getting some touches today, but But alright going back to the Cavs who also have had second half questions and actually
did a little bit better when it came to the New Orleans Pelicans game, having a great third quarter, one of the best that they’ve had this season, rounding it out with another good fourth quarter to close out a game that they were able to use their entire bench unit for all 12 minutes of that fourth quarter. But we are not here to recap that game. I did that in yesterday’s solo pod. Today, we are going to do a Hey Chris episode where we get our questions directly from our subtexters.
they get to have messages, direct line analytics, stats, analysis, straight to their phone. And they get the privilege of having to send their questions in, not only to the podcast, but also just texting us straight to our phones as well. Chris, I had to answer some questions that I knew we weren’t gonna get to on this podcast before we got in here, because some of them are one word, two word answers. I wanted to get into some of the ones that are a little bit more in depth.
Here is the first one. The first one comes and it says, I’m most concerned about the players health, especially Dean Wade, Darius Garland. Can they consistently stay on the court or they always be periodically out due to injury? Obviously this is probably going back to the playoffs of last year.
Going back to before the playoffs when we saw Dean Wade out for I believe it was 26 straight games, Chris, and then Darius Garland who consistently plays through injuries, is not or especially last season wasn’t at 100 % when he came back even after the fracture jaw and all those different things.
Ethan Sands (06:54.338)
So I think it’s interesting. I think it’s a fair question. I want to get your thoughts, especially when it comes to Dean Wade, because it feels like he is a guy that without him, the Cavs could be hampered when it goes into the playoffs.
Chris (07:08.55)
I think it’s a legitimate concern and I don’t know exactly what the remedy is for this situation that the Cavs find themselves in here, Ethan. Like Kenny Atkinson is trying to do things. One of the things that he came in saying was, you know, I’ve got to limit the minutes of my star players, right? I’ve got to get them through the grind of the 82 game season so that when we get into April, May and June, bigger picture, they can be in better mental and physical shape than what they’ve been in in the past.
So this organization sees the benefit of that, sees the benefit of using its depth, sees the benefit of voluntary shoot-arounds, not as many practice days during the season. And this organization is trying to do stuff to try and keep these guys healthy and get them to the finish line in a different state. Some of this is just bad luck, right? Some of these guys…
Dean Wade landed on Jared Allen’s ankle when he was contesting a shot, friendly fire. You that’s gonna happen in basketball. It happens all the time. Max Struce, people don’t have entire clarity on how he got hurt, but he got hurt in a workout. You know what I mean? So like, some of this stuff is bad luck. But I think the way that I’ll say it is that the Cavs are doing everything that they can do, Ethan.
to try and make sure that health isn’t a problem or health isn’t a detriment to this team when they get to the playoffs like it’s been in the past. Donovan Mitchell is the leader in minutes played so far for the Cavs. It’s only 31 a night. That’s way lower than some of these other superstars across the NBA. So when you get an opportunity to sit your guys in the fourth quarter, you do it.
and that can be advantageous if you take care of business against the lesser teams against the overmatched teams and you can sit your guys and get them some time off in fourth quarters. That’s good. Like I said, the Cavs are doing voluntary shoot arounds at various points. they’re not going to have practice again tomorrow, two straight days of no practice for the Cavs because they have this little break in the schedule. practice days during the season at this point.
Chris (09:25.37)
have really turned into get what you need days and recovery days for these players. So they’re doing the things that I think they believe will be beneficial for them. And yet they’re still being hit by the injury bug. To me, the one to watch more than others is Karis LeVert. Right? We can sit here and we can look at Dean Wade and say, man, that guy’s always injured. And you know, that’s something that he’s had to deal with going back to college.
He had foot issues in college. had injury issues in college. It’s part of the reason why he went undrafted. Darius Garland is somebody the way that his body is, the way that he plays. It’s going to be hard for him to play all 82 games in the regular season.
I think some of these guys, one, it’s bad luck, two, it’s just kind of who they are and it’s something that you’re going to have to deal with when it comes to them. They’re not Ironman, like Tristan Thompson in the past or Deandre Jordan in the past or McKell Bridges. Some of these guys who just like don’t get hurt in the NBA. But the one to watch is Caris Levert. Caris Levert continues to deal with an achy knee that bothered him last year.
If you remember, he didn’t play the final game of the series against Boston because of knee issues and he went through the entire off season and he felt good coming into this year, but his knee, from what I’m told, requires constant maintenance, extra treatment. He’s doing other things after games to try and make sure that the inflammation doesn’t keep popping up after these games, but
It’s something that I feel like the Cavs are going to have to consistently manage and monitor. And I think it’s going to lead to him missing random games throughout the course of this schedule. I think he’s one of the guys along with Donovan that there is a big picture plan in place to make sure that that he
Chris (11:22.756)
gets the kind of rest and recovery throughout the course of the season. And I think there are going to be a number of instances going through this schedule where Karis is on the injury report as out with either knee inflammation or just rest because he’s on the other side of 30 and this knee thing is not getting better.
Ethan Sands (11:44.578)
Yeah, Christian, mean, when we came into the season, when we came into training camp and he was talking about, and we got to talk to him when he was at IMG and somebody asked him, when did you get healthy? And he said, not two to three weeks before we got here. And I was sitting in my chair and I was like, what do you mean not two to three weeks before training camp, before the season started? Like you are one of the, you are the sixth man of this team. One of the most important players.
coming out of what they were able to do during that 15 and 0 streak. And yet, you still had concerns. He obviously was on the injury report during that streak as well when it came to that knee. And it was a different knee than the one that he had injured previously, right? It was the opposite one. And to me, that’s not only a concern when it comes to the soreness of and the wear and tear and all of those different things. But you talked about it, Chris. How is he going to make it?
82 games in a season and if this is going to be a consistent conversation, consistent worry, no matter how great you play throughout the season, your contract is up at the end of the year and that is going to have to be a discussion that the Cavs are going to have about are you going to trust in those needs that you don’t know are going to be on the injury list whenever it comes to throughout the entire season, right? And I want to go back to Darius just for a second because
A subtexter talked about how they wanted Darius to continue taking shots even though the three pointer might not have fallen in the beginning of the game or anything of that nature and not shying away from the moment. I don’t think you can say Darius shied away from the moment in the Boston Celtics game because that’s what they were referring to, right? Because he took 21 shots. That was the second most shots he took all season.
Chris (13:37.33)
Mm-hmm.
Ethan Sands (13:40.322)
He obviously three of 21 and I talked about this a little bit yesterday, but the fact that Kenny Atkinson, which he said, I think it was pregame about taking those shots, about being confident and taking those shots and having a conversation with Darius and saying that he was proud of him for taking those shots. And then again, something we’ve talked about with a lot of different players already to start the season, Chris, Darius came back to Kenny Atkinson and was like, yeah, I wouldn’t have done that last year.
Chris (13:58.308)
Yep.
Ethan Sands (14:10.038)
So that kind of gets into the next question that we have from our subtexter a new I believe from San Francisco from Frisco He says we have been hearing so much about Kenny Atkinson wondering what sticks out to you guys on impacts of the assistant coaches have having on That doesn’t make sense the assistant coaches on schemes X’s and O’s or player development and
Chris, I’m interested to know what you’ve heard about this group. Obviously, I did a story on Johnny Bryant to open the season, what he means to Donovan Mitchell, obviously where his history has come from, how he got to this point being a associate head coach with the New York Knicks and now with the Cavs. So he’s a big guy when it comes to player development, his story dating back all the way to Utah and those kinds of things. But Chris.
The other assistant coaches are huge. You see how much Kenny Atkinson leans on them. Demarey Caro is a one that we talked about yesterday when it comes to the decision to play Jaylen Tyson as a starter. That was something that happened as well. So where have you heard that this assistant coaching staff has been leaned on by Kenny Atkinson?
Chris (15:22.31)
And the Jaylen Tyson thing, that was not going to happen. It was going to be George Nieng in that starting lineup too. So, you know, credit to the coaching staff for trying something different, understanding, Hey, you know, this is game 16, 17. We can do these kinds of things right now. Right. This is the second game of a back to back. If there’s a time to explore some things, if there’s a time to experiment with some things, let’s do it.
And I give him a lot of credit and I think that empowered Jaylen. think that gave him a lot of confidence and, he played well. And Jaylen, think needed that kind of pick me up because. know, he hasn’t played at all this year for the Cavs. And this was a guy who was talking during his introductory conference about.
You know, Hey, look, I’m going to find my way onto the floor. Like, don’t tell me that I’m out of this rotation already. Don’t tell me that just because this team came off an Eastern conference semi-finals appearance, that there’s not a place for me. I’m going to try and work my way into this rotation. So for somebody like him to not get those opportunities early in the season, you know, getting that bone thrown his way, getting that first career start.
getting to play as many minutes as he did against the Pelicans and play well the way that he did. I think that’s going to be big for him moving forward. And I think it’s big for the Cavs to see it as well.
If they run into situations like this again, where they’re missing a whole bunch of their wing options, they know that they have somebody like Jaylen, who’s not going to be afraid of the moment, who’s going to step up and be able to make some plays and make some positive things happen at both ends of the floor for this team. So I think that was a good decision made by that coaching staff to do that against the Pelicans. But beyond that, I mean, the thing that stands out to me, Ethan, is that…
Chris (17:12.43)
Every single one of the coaches that they brought on this staff basically all of the newbies Including the one holdover being Mike Garrity They all are known for player development and Even though this is a team that is coming off back-to-back playoff appearances Even though this is a team that made the Eastern Conference semifinals last year Even though this is a team that has a sprinkling of veterans that have been there done that
had success both individually and from a team standpoint, this organization is not losing sight of the importance of player development. They’re continuing to dig into that as much as they possibly can. That’s a big selling point to Kenny Atkinson. But the guys that he brought on board, Johnny Bryant.
player development background. Mike Garrity was the Cavs player development ace for a number of years before he took over the Cleveland charge. And now he’s back in a role where he’s an assistant coach. If you look at Jordan Ott, Jordan Ott.
Started his career basically in player development. He was key once he left Brooklyn and then went to the Los Angeles Lakers He was key from the people that I talked to With grooming some of the young guys for the Lakers as well And Omar Cook is you know a former player. He played professionally overseas. He’s a former point guard He’s kind of taken the role of overseeing Darius Garland’s development
And Omar is known across the NBA as an up and coming player development coach that some of these opposing teams have their eyes on. So each one of these guys that they brought and gave a bigger role or kept on this staff, it’s a player development focus. And I think that’s a really, really big deal. And I think you’ve seen evidence of that.
Chris (19:05.05)
You’ve seen internal development from this team. And when you bring back 13 or 14 players, every night rotation players from your previous roster, you have to find other ways to improve around the margins. And a big part of that is the coaching element of this.
Ethan Sands (19:24.256)
Alright Chris, I don’t want to hold you too long because I know you got a game to get back to watching. But the last question that I want to get into, I think it’s an interesting one. It’s from Dave and PA and it’s a simple yet intricate question. He says, is this team too deep? Could they be headed for a consolidation trade?
Chris (19:47.28)
think the only way that they do that, Ethan, is if they feel like there’s somebody out there that would make a significant impact in their top seven to eight in their rotation. Like, can we upgrade Isaac Okoro? Can we upgrade George Nia?
And I’m not saying that the Cavs think that both those guys have underperformed at the beginning of the year, or they don’t have a place on this team. But if there’s the opportunity to do that and it’s cost effective and it’s not going to cause them to give up too many assets, and if it’s not going to ruffle things behind the scenes, and if the guys are going to fit from a culture standpoint and an on-court systematic standpoint.
then I think it’s something that they would explore, but I think if we bring it back to the initial conversation of this podcast, the injuries.
Injuries have been a story for the Cleveland Cavaliers for the last couple of years and having as many playable guys that you can go to is going to be beneficial for you. know, Craig Porter Jr. Showed in the last couple of games that he doesn’t have to play a whole bunch of minutes in the first 10 to be ready when his number is called and be effective when his number is called. Like that’s not a role for everybody. Not everybody can do that, but Craig has shown an ability to do that.
And it’s beneficial to have a guy like that on your bench. So if something happens to Ty Jerome, if something happens to Darius Garland, if something happens to Donovan Mitchell, you have that luxury. If something happens to Dean Wade, George Niang, maybe you can go to Luke Travers. Maybe, I don’t know. Maybe you give him an opportunity in this stretch of games coming up where…
Chris (21:36.9)
There isn’t as much significance to them. There isn’t the consequence of a long winning streak that you’re trying to uphold. And you see if he’s ready for more playing time at the NBA level. You give him little opportunities throughout the course of the game. So if you get to February or March and you have to go to him, you feel more comfortable that you can do that. So again, the Cavs are going to be always open to an idea of improving this roster any
way that they can and they’re going to explore the trade market and they’re going to see what’s out there in terms of trades and then they’ll probably explore the buyout market after that and see what’s available to them in free agency. It’s part of the reason why they kept that open roster spot to have optionality and flexibility. But, you know, I don’t think that they’re in a situation where they’re saying we have too many good players. Let’s do a two for one deal.
I don’t think they’re in that mode unless again, like I said, it’s somebody who can make a dent and improve the seventh, eighth, ninth guy in the rotation. And then if that’s the case and you trade, you know, guy 13 and 12 from this, then you do that. But the other thing to…
to keep in mind here is that this team’s going to continue to get more expensive as this goes on. So having like cost-effective players on team friendly contracts is really, really beneficial for the salary cap situation of this team. And Craig Porter Jr. fits that. Obviously Jalen Tyson fits that. You know, a guy like Luke Travers could fit that as well.
So if you can have playable guys on cheap deals, that’s really, really important to team building.
Ethan Sands (23:28.59)
I’m in reps, reps, reps, Chris. That’s what makes and breaks teams, right? And if you’re able to allow Luke Travers to get into this Toronto Raptors game on Sunday, JT Thor, also a guy. And sure, these are guys that we obviously know, two-way guys, end of the bench guys, gonna get opportunities when they’re needed, injuries, all those different things. But for me,
We talked about how there were some players in early game scenarios against teams like the New York Knicks, the Milwaukee Bucks, some of those guys that weren’t able to be as efficient that we might’ve wanted to see them do that, right? Ty Jerome coming back against significant teams and showing that he can play and hoop to that level, to that higher tier level of the Eastern Conference especially is important for this team.
But then you also talk about Craig Porter Jr. And obviously we understand he is a guy that wasn’t supposed to get a lot of minutes last year, got some minutes, showed himself, and then earned himself a quote unquote backup point guard role because Ty Jerome wasn’t around. Now Ty’s back. You got Darius, you got Donovan. So he’s moved back down the line of options. But for him to come into Boston and play 25 minutes.
Chris (24:36.183)
Mm-hmm.
Ethan Sands (24:47.638)
and get 15 points and have a positive plus minus and all these different things. And I know, Chris, you’re going to roll your eyes because I was high on him last year and we had some skeptics coming into this season. And I agree. I believe this is going to be a year where he’s lower on the depth chart than he was last year. He’s going to get less run. He’s going to be less useful. But if he’s able to contribute like he does in that role where you’re like,
There’s been times when Kenny has gone to the end of the bench and pointed a crack. He’s like, huh? And he’s gotten up and gone into the game. And even though he might’ve been a little bit shocked, he was ready to go. And if you have a guy like that, that’s always ready to go a hunter, a competitor like that, I think it eases confidence when it comes to Kenny Atkinson and also the other guards around him, because it’s like, hey, I have faith in you and I trust in you. There’s no egos.
on this team that if I’m having an off night, I can trust you to have a better one and we can switch places just for the night, even if it is just for that night.
Chris (25:55.482)
think Craig deserves so much credit for the way that he’s played at the beginning of this year, the way that he has handled this particular role. Like I said, Ethan, I mean, it is not for everybody. He was signed to a standard contract by the Cavs last year. He earned that standard contract, undrafted two way. Then he was…
a savior for them at a time where they absolutely needed somebody to fill some point guard minutes. And it was probably too early for him to be thrust in there, but he wasn’t phased. he had good games. had positive moments. He provided them, the kind of depth that was required to get through the whole Darius Garland injury situation. And then he comes into this year and he gets bumped out of the rotation because Ty Jerome is the MVP of September. And because the Cavs really, really liked Ty and because Ty was going to be the
point guard last year before he got hurt and because Ty has familiarity with Kenny Atkinson system and because Ty’s really really good at basketball as we have seen so far in this first stretch of games so for Craig to continue to be a professional continue to do his work behind the scenes and continue to be prepared for whenever his number is going to be called if if his numbers even going to be called you know that takes a special kind of kid especially this early into his career
And he doesn’t complain about playing time. He is a low maintenance guy. His teammates love him. And every time that the Cavs have called on him…
He’s done some positive things. mean, if you think about the game against Boston, he was integral in terms of setting screens, forcing those switches so that the Cavs could attack Keita, you know, because they were going to the small, small pick and roll type stuff. And if you think back to the game against New Orleans, you know, he was on pace for a double-double and he was dishing to his teammates and he was getting everybody involved and he was organizing the offense and doing all those steady things that
Chris (27:55.804)
you saw from him as a rookie so I think you can honestly look at it and say yes he deserves more minutes yes on a different team in a different situation he would be getting more minutes but that’s not his reality and he has accepted that that’s not his reality and it’s his job
to just be ready whenever it is that Kenny Atkinson calls on him and make a difference when Kenny calls on him and he has. So I give him all the credit as a young player for understanding that and being able to thrive in that kind of sporadic environment that he’s been put in.
Ethan Sands (28:33.462)
And Chris, mean, I think it’s also good to have somebody like that on your bench along with Jalen Tyson, who’s a rookie and has to be patient and will potentially could don’t know if he’s going to get the minutes that he thinks he wants. It’s the same kind of scenario where you just have to be ready. You just got to be ready for your moment and seize it when it comes. And Jalen Tyson did that. And obviously having guys around him, talked about Kara Slivert, George Niang, hyping him up.
and working with them in the off season. Then you talk about Donovan, Darius, Ty and Evan, all those different guys talking to him before the game. Like it’s a different kind of mentality. We talk about the camaraderie of this team all the time. Like this is a team that is built on that and continues to thrive on that. So for Craig to play in that kind of role, to have that knowledge of what that’s like on this team, he can instill knowledge into Jalen Tyson. But I do think this is going to be more like a
quote unquote, rookie year for Craig Porter Jr. when it comes to minutes and opportunity. But Chris, I want to end the podcast like this. For fans that are asking where’s Max Drewson when he’s going to be back, Saturday will mark five weeks of his reevaluation period. He has six weeks to go before he’s officially reevaluated. So it’s just one more week till we find out what’s going on with Max and how he’s growing and continuing to evolve and all those different things.
But we don’t want to be hasty. We don’t want to rush it because who knows, Max Drews could still be on the injury list after next Saturday. He still will probably more than likely need to be ramped back up in the gameplay, conditioning wise, all those different things. So you don’t want to rush it, but that will be a conversation that we will be having sooner rather than later. But.
Chris (30:23.79)
And just to add to that, Ethan, I saw him in Philadelphia, I want to say. was either Philly or Chicago. It was during that most recent road trip. And Max was doing very, very little in terms of movement, in terms of cutting. Like the only kind of extension movement that he was doing was reverse layups. And it was basically taking one step, one step at a time.
The on court activity that he has done to this point in terms of his recovery is very, very limited. It’s been a lot of stands still shooting. And that just goes to tell you one, how severe the injury was. Grade three is what I’ve heard it classified as recently. And it also tells you that there’s still a lot of stuff that he’s got to do behind the scenes to get him back.
In the condition where he can be just healthy enough to play and then effective enough to play. And then you would think because he missed, you know, as much time as he did. and he hasn’t had an opportunity to really get integrated into the system, blend in with some of these new groupings and stuff like that. That he’d probably start on a minute restriction. And that would probably be there for the first couple of games, maybe the first week when he comes back.
and the role that he would be coming back to is probably different than the one that
The Cavs ultimately envisioned coming into this year and probably still envision him having at some point as we get closer and closer to the end of the regular season, if he can maintain his health after coming off of this injury. So I do think it’s going to be a continual slow build when it comes to Max and how much of an impact he can make for this team, even when he is healthy enough to get back on the court.
Ethan Sands (32:22.038)
And I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, Chris, because I mean, there’s currently three of the Cavs options as a small forward starter on the injured list. So you don’t know what’s going to happen or who’s going to be on the injured list, who’s going to be healthy when Max comes back. That will all play a factor in the role that he gets. Obviously, I agree with you. Minute restriction is a must, but
Minute restriction when he’s a starter, minute restriction when he’s on the bench, coming off the bench, whatever. Those are different things that we’ll have to get into later on. That’s why I can’t get into it too much right now, subtexters and listeners, but it is going to be a conversation that we get into in a couple of weeks, maybe in a week.
Chris (32:50.66)
Right.
Chris (33:05.016)
And winter has arrived, are you kidding me? My goodness, this is ridiculous. This snow is wild.
Ethan Sands (33:11.79)
Man, my electricity is bouncing around. But let’s get out of here before my electricity shuts off. With that being said, that’ll wrap up today’s episode of the Wine and Gold Talk Podcast. But remember to become a Cavs Insider and interact with Chris, me, and Jimmy by subscribing to Subtext. Sign up for a 14-day free trial or visit cleland.com backslash Cavs and click on the blue bar at the top of the page. Also,
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